PNG support would be nice though especially if anim8or supported alpha mapping in textures, and rendered shadows accordingly.

For instance, creating a rectangle, IV mapping a texture of a tree onto it with transparent background, and the "ground" under the tree has the tree-shaped shadow when rendered rather than a box, as happens in Povray.

Sorry if I'm not clear - I'm rushed for time right now else I'd setup an example in povray to illustrate.

Yes, I'm talking about correctly rendering alpha maps, which PNG would support, but also rendering _shadows_ of alpha-mapped-textured objects correctly. In my "tree" illustration, the object is just a rectangle, so if its treated as a solid as anim8or does now, you'd see a rectangular shadow cast by it.

If the rectangle, however, is textured with a PNG that uses transparency, it'd be great if the shadow also used the alpha map of the texture. For instance, if the rectangle is textured to a tree, you'd ideally see the tree being rendered and other objects behind it (eg support for the alpha maps) and you'd also see the tree cast a tree-shadow, not the rectangular shadow of the object its mapped onto. Hope that makes it clearer.

PNG's are easy to convert to a usable format, so don't eliminate the option of using those textures. I do agree, PNG's would be a wonderful feature, the issue is this feature's been requested a thousand times already, and most people want it. I believe Steve knows people want it to be implemented, he just hasn't gotten around to it yet, as he's a very busy man!